INTRODUCTION INTO LIFE. 387 



accompanying her in a distant journey to a more 

 genial climate, as is sometimes the case with 

 house-martins when deserted by their mates ; yet 

 the conduct of the male, if it does not actually 

 establish the fact that swifts occasionally abandon 

 their offspring to destruction, certainly affords 

 strong presumptive evidence in its favour." 



We must hasten, however, to draw this chapter 

 in our Life of a Bird to its close. The nestling, 

 as may be conceived, is now becoming a strong, 

 vigorous, and active little being, and in a little 

 while will equal the agility of its parents in their 

 aerial evolutions, and in the search and capture of 

 food. It is still carefully fed by them, and occa- 

 sionally leaves its comfortable home and takes 

 some position hard by ; a step just preparatory to 

 its being sent out into the world to provide for 

 itself. "White gives a curious account of the 

 gradual progress of the nestlings of a swallow 

 which had built in a chimney. He says : " The 

 progressive method by which the young are intro- 

 duced into life is very amusing ; first they emerge 

 from the shaft with difficulty enough, and often 

 fall down into the rooms below. For a day or so 

 they are fed on the chimney-top, and then are 

 conducted to the dead, leafless boughs of some 



